The Story of Felt

When I was 5, we lived across the street from the library. I could go across the street to the library any time I wanted...until I got in trouble, that is, and Mom said I couldn't go to the library for 2.whole. days. Man, was she rough with the punishments. But seriously, I thought I was the luckiest kid in town.

Fast forward 33 years, and while we don't live across the street, Mookie, Sprout and I have been spending more time at the library lately. One day, we even took Dave! And rather than me having to tether Mookie to a post while I frantically chose 17 books (sometimes grabbing multiple copies of the same book), this time we got to explore the Young Readers section a little more.

Over by the big window, Mookie found a basket of shapes made of felt, and a little boy randomly sticking them to the wall. Not wanting to be left out, Mookie started sticking some up, too. Upon closer inspection, I realized the wall was covered in felt, and I had a few schoolroom flashbacks. :-)

I remembered my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. George, with a black felt board and shapes that helped her tell the story of Hansel and Gretel and me thinking it was some kind of teacher-magic. Then I remembered being 25 and trying every trick in the book to teach DNA Replication to my inner-city hooligans, and finally striking gold when I cut the As and Ts and Cs and Gs out of felt so the students were able to manipulate the pieces and they GOT it!! If felt had a Facebook page back in 1997, I woulda been a fan.

Back to reality, I noticed that Mookie was enthralled, so I took the time to go chat with Linda the librarian. I asked her how they made all the shapes, and she explained how they cut them on their Ellison die-cutting machine (you put a piece of paper on each side of the felt before you cut it with the die). "That's brilliant!" I said while trying to figure out how to get access to an Ellison machine so I could cut some shapes of my own...I knew of some open wall space that would be perfect to convert into a felt wall for Mookie. Linda must have seen the wheels turning in my brain because she offered to cut as many shapes (or letters) I wanted if I would simply provide the felt. Is it wrong to jump up and down and whisper-squeal and hug the librarian you've only just met? :-) Well, if so, I was all wrong in that moment! A week, or so, later I took a conservative number of felt pieces back to her (I didn't want to look too greedy or desperate, you know), and patiently waited for her call.

She called me Tuesday and said the shapes were ready for me to pick up. Yay!! I also noticed that Joann's has their 72" felt on sale for $2.99 a yard. It was all coming together perfectly!!

So this morning we went and Mookie picked out the felt, we stopped by the library, and came home just in time to put them all away. It was naptime. I know, mean mommy, but if we started, we'd never want to stop.

Immediately after she woke up, this was the scene:

I didn't even stop to brush the bed-head out of her hair.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going over to Facebook to become a fan of felt.